Planet Aqua: A New Understanding of Humanity and The Future of Life on Earth

Part 2

            In Part 1, I talked about the poly-crises humanity is facing. I described Jeremy Rifkin’s new book, Planet Aqua: Rethinking Our Home in the Universe and how it expands the understanding of our world to recognize that our planet is primarily water rather than earth. I also discussed the work of James DeMeo who traced the origins of many of our current problems to a particular time and place in human history–6,000 years ago in the Middle East–and what it can teach us about our present predicament and how to solve it.

            For most of human history, despite the many challenges of life, humans lived in relative peace and prosperity. In their book, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future, Riane Eisler and Douglas P. Fry, they say,

“For the overwhelming majority of the period that the genus Homo has existed, nomadic foraging constituted the ubiquitous human lifestyle.”

They go on quote anthropologist M.G. Bicchieri who said,

“For more than 99 percent of the approximately two million years since the emergence of recognizable human animal, man has been a hunter and gatherer.”

            Eisler and Fry say our ancestors were “The Original Partnership Societies” with the following features of partnership systems that include:

• Equality, respect, and partnership between women and men.

• A nonacceptance of violence, war, abuse, cruelty, and exploitation.

• Ethics that support human caring, prosocial cooperation, and flourishing.

As James DeMeo’s research demonstrated, this way of life changed 6,000 years ago.

“With very few exceptions, there is no clear and unambiguous evidence for warfare or social violence on our planet Earth prior to around 4,000 BCE and the earliest evidence appears in specific locations, from which it firstly arose, and diffused outward over time to infect nearly every corner of the globe.”

DeMeo goes on to say,  

“A massive climate change shook the ancient world, when approximately 6,000 years ago vast areas of lush grassland and forest in the Old World began to quickly dry out and convert into harsh desert. The vast Sahara Desert, Arabian Desert, and the giant deserts of the Middle East and Central Asia simply did not exist prior to c.4000 BCE.”

There is modern evidence that the area in question is what had been referred to in the bible as “the Garden of Eden.” In their book, Exiles From Eden: Psychotherapy From an Evolutionary Perspective, Kalman Glantz and John K. Pearce cite the work of archaeologist Juris Zarins. He believes this idyllic area of the world now lies under the Persian Gulf, downstream from the ancient civilizations that flowed along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. According to Glantz and Pearce

“Eden was not paradise. It was just a place—a place where human beings lived the way all humans lived before the rise of civilization.”

“The ‘Garden of Eden’ myths, which exist in the historical literature of many Old World cultures, appear to be factually rooted in this early period of socially-cooperative and peaceful social conditions, when the Saharasia was green and fruitful,”

says DeMeo.

“Then came the devastating climate change towards aridity, which formed the vast Saharasian desert belt, and humans were literally cast ‘out of the garden’. The rest is history.”

            DeMeo’s research shows that the drought that occurred 6,000 years went on for generations and impacted the lives of all who lived at that time. Recent research on the impact of “Adverse Childhood Experiences,” demonstrates that the consequences of childhood trauma are long lasting and cause physical, emotional, and relational health problems throughout our lives.

“Famine and starvation is a severe trauma from which survivors rarely escape unscathed,”

says DeMeo.

“A lot of people die, families are split apart, and babies and children are often abandoned, and suffer enormously. Starvation affects surviving children in an emotionally severe manner. These attitudes and behaviors are deeply protoplasmic in nature, and are passed on to ensuing generations no matter what the climate, by social institutions which reflect the character structure of the average individual at any given period of time.”

            Although this kind of trauma impacts both males and females, men and women often deal with the trauma in different ways. The comedian, Elayne Boosler, offers a humorous, yet insightful reflection on this inherent difference. She says,

“When women get depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country. It’s a whole different way of thinking.”

            In my recent book, Long Live Men! The Moonshot Mission to Heal Men, Close the Lifespan Gap, and Offer Hope to Humanity, my second chapter is titled, “Male Violence is Increasing—From School Shootings, to Domestic Violence and Insurrection at the US Capitol. From Irritability and Anger to Depression and Suicide.”

            I go on to say,

“Men are the ‘canaries in the coal mine,’ alerting us to the need for change. Canaries were used in goal mines as an early warning system for miners. Toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and methane in the mine would kill the bird before affecting the miners. Male mental illness and breakdown are the world’s early warning signs of impending catastrophe. Things like Irritable Male Syndrome, male depression and aggression, and high suicide rates are alerting us to the toxic nature of our current environment and lifestyles.”

Our Moonshot For Mankind and Humanity

            We believe man’s mental, emotional, and relational health is the key to empowering men to live long and well. Our mission is to help men live healthier, happier, more cooperative lives—fulfilling lives of purpose and productivity, where men are supported and valued as they make positive contributions to their families, friends, and communities. When that happens, families grow stronger, communities prosper, and humanity takes its next leap forward.

            In 2004 I read a powerful study, “Sexual Selection and the Male:Female Mortality Ratio,” by Daniel J. Kruger, PhD and Randolph M. Nesse, M.D. They examined premature deaths among men in 20 countries. They found that in every country, men died sooner and lived sicker than women and their shortened health-span and lifespan harmed the men and their families. They concluded with a number of powerful statements:

• “Being male is now the single largest demographic factor for early death.”

• “Over 375,000 lives would be saved in a single year in the U.S. alone if men’s risk of dying was as low as women’s.”

• “If male mortality rates could be reduced to those for females, this would eliminate over one-third of all male deaths below age 50 and help men of all ages.”

• “If you could make male mortality rates the same as female rates, you would do more good than curing cancer.”

For me, this was a call to action. I invited a number of colleagues who were leading organizations that had proven successful in helping improve men’s health. We launched the non-profit, MoonshotForMankind.Org. We invite you to join us.

We also have an additional way to share information that can be helpful. Come check out our Substack, https://substack.com/@moonshotformankind and hear what our founding members have to say.

There are clearly a number of biologically based reasons why women live longer than men. But we know that even our genes can be modified by changes in our lifestyle and beliefs about ourselves and the world.

The lessons I have learned over the years are these:

• We may not be responsible for the traumatic climate change that occurred 6,000 years ago, but we must take responsibility for our present situation. As they say, “Nature bats last.” If humans are not willing to change, nature will force the change upon us.

• We would do well to listen to our animal elders. Most species have been here longer than us and are better adapted to life on planet Earth. As historian Thomas Berry reminds us.

“We never knew enough. Nor were we sufficiently intimate with all our cousins in the great family of the earth. Nor could we listen to the various creatures of the earth, each telling its own story. The time has now come, however, when we will listen or we will die.”

• When we’re going down the wrong road, it’s never too late to turn around.

• We may not be able to turn back to the past, but we can move ahead to the future. As Jeremy Rifkin says,

“We need to reset our perception of waters as ‘resource’ to one where waters are seen as a ‘life source.’ We need to adapt to the hydrosphere rather than trying to adapt the hydrosphere to us. The next stage in the human saga is to rebrand our home ‘Planet Aqua’ and learn to live and thrive in new ways on a unique water planet in the universe.”

You can learn more about Jeremy Rifkin’s work and his book, Planet Aqua: Rethinking Our Home in the Universe here. If you liked this series of articles and would like to read more about how we can create a healthy future for ourselves, our children, and future generations, I invite you to sign up for my free weekly newsletter. You can do so here: https://menalive.com/email-newsletter/